Comments | ice_echani: forty-first.

ice_echani

forty-first.

Dec 20, 2010 20:58

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❉ kurayami, polar ice caps are cold, words are inefficient, ❉ cloud, i am a jedi like my mother before me, pulled a lockon, missing mom, tree falls everyone dies, handmaiden says hello, ❉ bell, lightsaber nao plz, exile says walk it off, there is angst here, ❉ fred/romana, ❉ genius, ❉ youth / gai, ❉ stoneface, oops, not the last, ow my eye, ❉ juliet, giant family issues, ❉ sylvar / juhani, ❉ rauxes, ❉ will/simon tam, i gots a name

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stonyfaced December 21 2010, 02:14:58 UTC

[Congratulations, Handmaiden. Your reappearance has made Stoneface pick up a pen for the first time since he got burned. The writing comes slowly (almost painfully so) and is wobbly, but it is clearly identifiable as Stoneface's signature scrawl.]

Where are you

ice_echani December 21 2010, 02:16:43 UTC

I am about to head to Wellspring. [Because she has an eye socket full of goop and is not sure how to clean it.] But where are you?

stonyfaced December 21 2010, 02:18:58 UTC

I'll be there

ql? ice_echani December 21 2010, 02:22:49 UTC

Very well.

QL! stonyfaced December 21 2010, 18:11:19 UTC

[Stoneface had been more than startled when he saw Handmaiden's writing on the journal the same day he managed to bully his way out of Wellspring. He still couldn't walk properly - or even hold a cane to assist his laboured walking - but he figured that he may as well sit at home miserably instead of sitting in a hospital bed miserably. It had been a shock to the system to hear of Handmaiden's death so soon after the resolution of a crisis, and it struck him like a fist to the gut. He couldn't say he never expected Handmaiden to die, but it was always the sort of thing that would happen later It was even more painful that he could not even go and give her the proper respect by going to see her corpse. Had he been holding his pen at the time, he would have probably mussed ink all over the page, but as it was, he managed to write out a slow, delicate message ( ... )

QL! ice_echani December 21 2010, 19:05:58 UTC

[Brianna has a cloth held over her goopy left eye socket--to be honest, getting that cleaned out is rather dominating her thoughts. It's a problem, it's... not very comfortable, and she doesn't want it to get infected. She hasn't dared try to clean it on her own.

But when she sees Stoneface in the waiting room, her thoughts quickly shift back to him. He looks... well he doesn't look completely well, of course, the fighting had taken quite a toll on him. But he looks--unsure.

She feels the same.]

Hello, Stoneface.

[She presses the cloth a little harder to her eye.]

Re: QL! stonyfaced December 21 2010, 19:19:10 UTC

[He exhales when he sees Handmaiden, half in relief, half in something akin to... anger. That's the only word he can think of to describe how he felt when he had heard the news. More often than not, people were not killed in such a fashion because of an accumulation of events, but one large one.

He had attempted to prepare questioning, but the fact that she's holding a cloth over her eye is distracting.]

Handmaiden--what happened? To your eye?

QL! ice_echani December 21 2010, 19:45:28 UTC

[She doesn't blame him for being angry. To be honest, she was quite taken aback by what killed her. She shouldn't have expected the Tree to behave, well, in a way she would expect.]

I--lost it when I died. A tree root. [She grimaces.] It was not there at all when I hatched.

QL! stonyfaced December 21 2010, 23:27:07 UTC

[Now that news is startling, and this time he responds with a sharp intake of breath.]

Your eye? [He repeats, and takes a step forward towards her, regarding her seriously. That's serious, crippling, even. Handmaiden relies on her body to fight, and that throws off one's whole perspective. It's the sort of injury that will take months to adjust to, he thinks. He whistles hoarsely underneath his breath.]

Godsdammit, Handmai--no, Brianna, wasn't it? Didn't look too closely at your entry. [But now he's looking closely at her. When he speaks again, his voice is dull, intentionally so, but he knows it's a futile effort; he cannot hide how his shoulders tense, how his head bows, how his eyes do not leave her.]

Is there anything else? Did any of your other wounds stay?

QL! ice_echani December 22 2010, 01:41:01 UTC

[Brianna nods, and removes the cloth for a moment so he can see. Her eyelid is closed and flat... it's also oozing goop and in the back of her mind she's trying to remember how long the stuff takes to dry.

She knows it will be difficult--her first attempt at writing resulted in a broken pen, and she's been having trouble with doors, things on tables... it will take time to adjust.]

Brianna. That is my true name.

[It's important. The Exile thought it was--she doesn't know what happened in her dream, exactly, what was and was not memory. But she is pretty sure that what her sisters said was memory, and that she should trust the Exile.]

No, my body is otherwise quite intact. [Her voice grows somewhat intense, with a hint of anxiety.] And I will adjust to this. I promise you. I will be able to carry on as a Watchman.

QL! stonyfaced December 22 2010, 02:21:08 UTC

Damn straight you're still a watchman, [Stoneface says loudly, straightening up and schooling his expression into a stern one.] Far as I'm concerned, you're a watchman until I tell you you're not one anymore. Not a patrolling one, at least not until you've adjusted all that tricky depth perception business, but a watchman all the same.

[He claps her on the shoulder, a man-to-man sort of gesture that is supposed to convey I was afraid I had lost you forever, and I'm happy you're back safe if not sound and never do that to me again. This moment is somewhat ruined by the fact that he had forgotten about his hands for a blessed minute, and retracts his hand instantly to blow on it through the leather of his glove as if it makes a difference. He swears.]

Ahh--hem. Er. Anyway. I'm... glad you're back. But what the hell did you do?

QL! ice_echani December 22 2010, 02:56:05 UTC

[Is that a smile? No it isn't, except around her eyes. It's such a relief to hear that from him--she did not want to be told that she was unfit for duty. Protecting the people of the Sphere has become a part of her.

...although she'll apparently have to protect them by filling out paperwork for a while, which doesn't sit well with her. She will have to adjust as quickly as she can in that case.]

Gai has said he will ask Bell to help me, and Cloud has offered as well. And... I believe the Force will help me as well. It will take training, but I will do it.

[She understands the the gesture... it conveys to her quite clearly what Stoneface means, and also the fact that his hands aren't healed. Brianna calls on the Force to try and help with that.]

I tried to bury a box containing information. [She sounds almost... sheepish. Certainly not happy either. She remembers what happen and it hurt a lot.] Then the ground became a pit and crushed me.

QL! stonyfaced December 23 2010, 08:32:53 UTC

[Cloud... it takes Stoneface a moment to remember the name and attach it to the corresponding face. It takes even longer for him to attach it to a face that isn't attached to a corpse. Cloud... his hair covers one of his eyes, right? Perhaps that is sign of something more, though Stoneface isn't sure. The first time he saw it, it simply struck him as a damned silly hairstyle. He nods in understanding.]

I know you'll work hard, [he says lightly. If it were somebody other than Handmaiden, he knows, he would be giving a lecture on the importance of hard work. With Handmaiden, he feels more pressured to give a lecture on the importance of relaxation and at least the occasional sweet.]

Did you tell anybody what you were trying to do beforehand?

[At this, Stoneface feels conflicted. Not telling anybody is a move that's beyond foolish. It means dying for nothing.

But if she did tell anybody, that means she chose somebody other than him, and had she not returned, he would be in the dark regarding the cause of death of one ( ... )

QL! ice_echani December 23 2010, 18:33:31 UTC

I told Juhani--and Simon. I... felt the need to act, as though there was no more reason not to. But I should have spoken to you as well... I would have, had you not been confined to Wellspring.

[She feels guilty over that--she should have told him, regardless of his condition, but stress is bad for the body and he was on medication...

...And she left him without a second-in-command after a crisis by dying.]

I am sorry. I truly did not think I would die for doing so, or I would have told you as well.

QL! stonyfaced December 23 2010, 19:22:01 UTC

[As it turns out, he was wrong. The fact that she told others but not him does make him a touch more angry than not telling anybody at all. This way, he cannot attribute Brianna's seemingly brief absence of logic to something done on the spur of the moment. He stares at her a moment, posture poised and hands still at his side.]

Then why didn't you wait? [He demands, but quietly.] Why directly after this place showed us how deadly it could be? Why when half of our force was out of commission?

[He raises a hand, and gestures lightly at where her eye socket is covered in cloth.] And now you are too.

[He doesn't say it, but he sure as hell is thinking it: You had a responsibility to your men, and you shirked it ( ... )

QL! ice_echani December 23 2010, 20:15:11 UTC

I did not think there was point in waiting. This place kills, maims, and takes no matter how convenient it is for us--I could have vanished three days ago and lost the ability to do anything here, whether it was burying a box or being a Watchman.

[The only reason she took the time to tell those two was because after being angry at Simon, it would have been hypocritical to say nothing--and Juhani is a Jedi, or was. They couldn't talk her out of it, and Stoneface couldn't have either.

...though mainly, she didn't have the creativity to consider that the ground would swallow her up.

But she feels the weight of Stoneface's point as well. There's little point in going over the mistakes, her misjudgment. She made a poor choice, and she failed him. Whatever she might have thought then, she sees now that she should not have done that. It is a difficult line to walk, balancing the need for answers with the need to protect people from everyday dangers.]...But that does not mean that my decision was right. I misjudged. I acted out of passion ( ... )

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